Not too long ago I heard Bill Maher go on a rant about libertarianism.
He said that libertarians have gone insane with their recent obsession
with free market capitalism, which he credits to their embrace of Ayn
Rand or "Ann Rand" as he called her. Now Maher acts like he is the
last sane voice of the libertarian movement.

Not that this is anything new since I am used to hearing Maher say
things that range from asinine to down right idiotic. Thinking all
the way back to the time when Maher said on his original show
Politically Incorrect, "Guns don't kill people. The NRA gets
people killed." Never mind that this is the same genius that moaned
and groaned about not being able to get a gun during the riots in LA,
which he later ended up having to borrow from a friend. Another great
piece of intellectual wisdom came when Maher said on his recent show
that he refuses to take vaccinations because he doesn't trust the
government with his health. I would have much more respect with his
line of reasoning if it weren't for all those times when he called
70% of the country stupid for not wanting Obamacare for the exact
same reason.

Sadly these bouts of stupidity aren't nearly as aggravating as the
times that Bill Maher has referred to himself as a libertarian
without knowing what it actually means. If you support victim
disarmament in any shape or form or believe that government
controlled healthcare is a good thing, then you probably aren't a
libertarian. While I can't speak for all libertarians, I am pretty
that most of them do not belong to organizations like PETA who care
more about the nonexistent rights of a lab rat then a child with
cancer.

Nothing has shown Maher's ignorance of libertarianism more then his
recent statements. If Maher had spent five minutes looking up
libertarianism on Wikipedia, he would have known that free market
capitalism has always been a vital part of libertarianism. The point
of a free market is for people to enjoy the fruits of their own
labor, without somebody using force to take it. He would have also
learned that free market ideology predates "Ann Rand" and her
Objectivist philosophy. Maher may have even learned that while Rand
is thought of as one of the founding mothers of the libertarian
movement, she actually rejected it and referred to its members as
right-wing hippies. Of course, if he actually bothered to do any
research, he would have known that her name was "Ayn Rand" not Ann
Rand, but by now we should all know that intellectual laziness is
what this man excels at.

Bill, buddy, I really hate to be the one to break this to you, but
you are not a libertarian in any shape or form. I can't even call
you a libertarian in the loosest sense. I can't even call you a
"small l" libertarian. Hell, for that matter I can't even place you
on the same level as people like Larry Elder, Neal Boortz or even
Glenn Beck. All of whom have libertarian leanings, but still manage
to fall short of being true libertarians. I would even go as far to
say that Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh have more in common with the
libertarian movement then you do Bill.

Not only are you a polar opposite of what libertarianism represents,
you are basically the Darth Vader to our Luke Skywalker. The truth
is that you are a statist plain and simple. With the exception of
whether it is safe to voluntarily take vaccinations, you seem to
trust the government with every other aspect of your life. The very
fact that you support Obamacare, a mandate that forces everybody to
purchase something they may or may not want, shows that you don't
have any understanding of "The Zero Aggression Principle", which
prohibits the initiation of force. This principle is center to the
very notion of libertarianism. Apparently you are willing to use
force to stop the average citizen from owning certain firearms. You
would probably be willing to use force to stop cancer researchers
from experimenting on lab rats, no matter how many lives the
experiments may save. Do everybody a favor Bill, stop calling
yourself a libertarian. Whenever you do, I feel more insulted then
I did when you called me and the rest of the 70% of the population
stupid.